Our work in Pitcairn Islands

The Pacific Islands–WHO Multi-country Cooperation Strategy 2024–2029, or MCCS, developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) through a consultative process involving 21 Pacific Island countries and areas (PICs), outlines WHO’s comprehensive and tailored medium-term support plan in the Pacific. This summary provides an overview of the MCCS, highlighting its alignment with regional and global health strategies.

Based on current population figures, approximately 80% of Pitcairn’s residents will be over 65 years old within five years, as young people move overseas and the remaining population grows older, with limited inward migration. Providing care and services for the growing elderly population is a priority; many of the oldest residents rely on their families for care and support, and some of those relatives are also quite elderly. There are currently no children on the Pitcairn Islands, and life there requires physically demanding work – moving cargo, farming, building and maintaining structures and roads, etc. The basic functioning of the island community requires that all residents contribute, and this is growing more difficult as the population grows older and suffers from NCDs.

The Pitcairn Islands health clinic offers essential health services but faces gaps in diagnostics and specialist care. Medical evacuation is extremely difficult and costly. Optimizing quality care despite constraints is an ongoing challenge. Strategies involve leveraging partnerships, technologies and exchanging lessons learnt with other small islands through United Kingdom overseas territory networks.

Health priorities include disease prevention and control, improving on-island diagnostics, enhancing the skills of the few health workers and addressing needs of the elderly through community-based models of care. Creative solutions grounded in the local context are vital as the Pitcairn Islands plan health services for 2024–2029